At Rutronik: Nordic’s Newest Multiprotocol SoC nRF52833 & Development Kit

This is a submission from on new Nordic Semiconductor multiprotocol SoC (System on Chip) nRF52833. It supports Bluetooth 5.1, Bluetooth Mesh, 802.15.4, Thread, ZigBee and proprietary 2,4GHz protocols. For developments based on the nRF52833 there is also a flexible single-board Development Kit (DK) available.

This is a typical one-thing-leads-to-another (OTLTA) project. It started by reading an item about a new component in the Elektor newsletter and it ended with a circuit design with Android app to check the power consumption of a device on your smartphone. Communication between the smartphone and the energy monitor is over Bluetooth.

This is a submission from Rutronik on the Panasonic HCI (Host Controlled Interface) Bluetooth RF module PAN1326C2. It's based on Texas Instruments’ CC2564C dual-mode Bluetooth controller that combines Bluetooth Basic Rate (BR), Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) and Low Energy (LE). The module supports up to ten BLE connections at the same time - thanks to independent buffering for LE without affecting the BR or EDR performance.

This article describes the electronics, the BL600 program and the Android program; the last being an Android smartphone application with which your mains switch circuit may be controlled wirelessly. You may notice an unusual detail for these pages — the transformerless power supply.

This is a submission from Rutronik about their distribution agreement with the Chinese manufacturer of Bluetooth technologies Shenzhen Minew Technologies Co. Ltd. Founded in 2007, Minew counts Google, Here, Huawei, and Alibaba among its IoT customers from over 100 countries. The agreement encompasses all of Minew’s products.

Over the past months, the word blockchain has become an important buzzword that helps selling content. Mention blockchain and you have an audience. The fact that you are reading this proves my point.

Researchers in the United States have built a Bluetooth chip that is extremely small and very low power. It would operate for 11 years (!) from a single button cell. This is very convenient for all kinds of Internet of Things applications.

The administration of drugs in tablet or capsule form has continued pretty much the same for over a 100 years. This could, however, change quite quickly. Researchers from MIT, Draper, Brigham and Women’s Hospitals have developed an advanced 3D-printed capsule that can be controlled with the aid of Bluetooth technology. The capsule has been designed to be swallowed by a patient, after which it can send and receive information from outside the body. It can also be instructed to gradually release drugs over a longer period of time, as a reaction to symptoms.

What do you do when you have misplaced your USB cable? You borrow one without worrying about any unpleasant consequences of this simple loan. Beware! A microcontroller hidden in the connector of a USB cable communicates wirelessly with the outside world. Its Bluetooth interface allows anyone who controls it to install malware or spyware.

Here comes a luxury problem! One of the stronger factors discouraging potential users to opt for STMicroelectronics microcontrollers traditionally has been: there are too many to choose from. Some people find this fascinating and a sign of constant technological progress, while others are in constant uncertainly as to which ‘STM32’ device or board is the best for the application at hand. Frankly, with STMicro’s enormous product range it’s easy to lose count of the number of ARM and ARM-Cortex based processors.